In one respect, it was heartening to hear Conor Benn talk about his professional debut in London this Saturday night – 20 years after his father retired – as if it were no more than a prologue to greatness, because boxing is not a business for the timid of heart.

The tape will go up for the Grand National on Saturday at 5.15pm, the latest it has ever started, in the hope of an even bigger TV audience than the 8m or so of recent years, and allowing sports fans to follow the race on their way home from Saturday afternoon matches.

The saddest of circumstances, separated by 25 years, have cemented an alliance between Chris Eubank and his fighting son, Chris Jr, that even they struggle to properly characterise but which they wholeheartedly agree is their joint destiny.

Australian boxer Lucas Browne and his team are investigating how the boxer could have ingested the banned substance clenbuterol, for which he tested positive after his WBA regular heavyweight world title fight with Ruslan Chagaev, following his arrival in Chechnya earlier this month.

Warren Gatland says he will not favour his Wales players when selecting his British and Irish Lions squad and has backed England’s Dylan Hartley as a possible captain for next summer’s tour to New Zealand. Gatland, who has been reappointed as head coach, is also adamant the Lions can upset the current world champions and win the three-Test series.

Mo Farah’s training partner Galen Rupp has taken the banned anabolic steroid testosterone since he was 16 under the supervision of the pair’s coach Alberto Salazar, according to a television documentary to be screened on Wednesday night.

For the third time in four days, the breakaway group had the final word. However, whereas in Kendal and Knutsford there was no doubt that an escapee would win, here nails were bitten until the very last metre, with Jack Bauer of New Zealand snatching victory even as Caleb Ewan of Australia led the peloton on to the heels of the third rider across the line, Erick Rowsell of the British team Madison-Genesis.

Frankie Dettori will be back in action at Epsom on Friday, having finally extricated himself from the restraining grip of French bureaucracy, 12 days after the end of his six-month ban for a cocaine positive.

Gennady Golovkin did not waste his energy on anything other than banalities and formalities when he addressed the world’s media for a final time before Saturday night’s intriguing clash of weights and styles against Kell Brook. There was no need. Why use words to sell a fight when his fists have long performed that job with such distinction?

Sir Bradley Wiggins has broken his silence surrounding the use of powerful banned substances taken with permission for medical reasons before some of his biggest races, insisting that he never sought to gain an unfair advantage.